Anger and Laughter
by Vaenarys
Summary: Anger management sessions were always fun, and with 'fun' John meant torture by incredibly boring backstories of people that were clearly not as close to sanity as society demanded.


Anger management sessions were always fun. And with 'fun' John meant torture by incredibly boring backstories of people that were clearly not as close to sanity as society demanded.

John sighed and rolled his eyes at what felt like the millionth time of someone bantering about their pushed down anger.

Sitting in this room week in week out, discussing whatever little fight with whoever it may be, felt like he was back in elementary school. It was not exactly his kind of way to spend the afternoon.

His eyes roamed the room. Today, there were some new faces around. Most of them were the usual, frustrated office workers, housewifes, whatever. If it hadn't been for their name tags John would not have recalled them at all.

Then again, there was one new face that felt kind of familiar to him without him recognizing it from previous sessions. He'd learned about an our ago that the man sitting across from him was a police officer as well. So it was possible that they had in fact met before.  
Yet, the interesting part was that the man was here because his MX got crushed in a compactor for some reason.

John had chuckled as the therapist had introduced James by sharing this information with them. And the man had smiled a bemused smile at him. As their gazes met John was about sure that he had crossed paths with him at least once in the past months. Though he was not exactly sure when and where.

His name was James Kirk. Blond hair. Blue eyes. About average height and as bored as John himself, though he seemed a little more restless. His right leg was jumping up and down, like he had a serious problem with sitting down and not doing anything at all for a longer period of time.

John watched as the therapist turned to James and asked "James, you want to share anything with us?" James darted his tongue out to wet his lips before answering. "No, I don't think so." He flashed a bright but probably faked smile at her.

"Okay." She said and moved on to the next one. John had seen this approach several times before. This was his first session. She may let it go today but the more often someone was just sitting in silence she would become pushy. Encouraging them until they finally shared at least a little bit with the rest. It annoyed John beyond believe whenever she did that, but it was her job after all.

Not as soon as he'd hoped the session was over and he was finally free to go. He did not hurry his way out of the room like some of the others.

Few of them had revealed things about themselves today and were kind of uncomfortable with that. John could relate. It had been the same with him some weeks ago as the therapist had gotten him far enough to talk about Anna for a bit. He was relieved, to say the least, that this appointment had passed without any more questions on that topic.

He cleared his head from these thoughts by shaking it before finally walking through the door. Dorian wasn't waiting for him outside this time. Today the session had been scheduled after his shift and there was no more work to do.

John stepped out of the building and breathed in the cool air of the early evening. He decided to swing by at McQuaid's to get something to drink.

He walked into the bar and immediatly made his way to the counter. He spotted a familiar blond head sitting there with a free seat next to him.

John considered it for a moment and thought "Yeah, why not?" Before stepping closer to the other man. He sat down on the chair and waved at the bartender who recognized him with a smile and hurried to get him his usual drink.

James was busy staring into a glass that was already half-empty and lost in deep thought. He hadn't noticed Johns approach at all.

Johns drink arrived moments later and he sipped on it before finally addressing the man sitting next to him. "Anger management, huh?" John asked and the other turned his head, confusion clear on his face.

John wondered if it had been alright to just sit down beside him. But as James recognized who had spoken he smiled weakly and bowed his head a little, mumbling something that sounded like "Yup."

That could have been the end of their conversation, but John felt social tonight and so he took another sip of his drink before asking. "So, you let your MX fall into a compactor, what's the big deal?"

He heard the other huff an annoyed sigh at the memory and James answered "It didn't 'fall'. I pushed it into it." And John almost laughed out loud at that. He watched as the other downed his drink before saying "Well, I shot the MX of a colleague straight in the face some time ago."

He saw James smile for real this time and was pleased with himself that he was able to make him do that. "Nice one." The other laughed and added "That's how I got rid of my first MX."

John shook his head at that and smiled as well. James had liked that story? He had another one. "A few months back I pushed my MX out of my moving car. It got hit by a truck." He felt a wave of satisfaction run through him as he remembered the pile of junk.

James laughed at that one and his mood seemed to lighten up greatly. "Seriously?!" He asked and kept on chuckling. John decided that he liked the sound of the others laugh and that it had been a good idea to come here tonight.

"Your turn." John offered, and that was the start of a pretty fun night of complaining and joking about the MXs.


End file.
